title: Concordance between in vivo and postmortem measurements of cholinergic denervation in rats using PET with [18F]FEOBV and choline acetyltransferase immunochemistry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fluorine-18 fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol ([18F]FEOBV) is a radioligand for the selective imaging of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter with positron emission tomography (PET). The current study demonstrates that pathological cortical cholinergic deafferentation can be quantified in vivo with [18F]FEOBV PET, yielding analogous results to postmortem histological techniques.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen male rats (3 months old) underwent a cerebral infusion of 192 IgG-saporin at the level of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis. They were scanned using [18F]FEOBV PET, then sacrificed, and their brain tissues collected for immunostaining and quantification of cholinergic denervation using optical density (OD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For both PET binding and postmortem OD, the highest losses were found in the cortical areas, with the highest reductions in the orbitofrontal, sensorimotor, and cingulate cortices. In addition, OD quantification in the affected areas accurately predicts [18F]FEOBV uptake in the same regions when regressed linearly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings support [18F]FEOBV as a reliable imaging agent for eventual use in human neurodegenerative conditions in which cholinergic losses are an important aspect.
authors.affiliation: Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4H 1R3, Canada. maxime.parent@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Maxime J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Parent
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cyr
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aliaga
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kostikov
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schirrmacher
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Soucy
authors.forename: Naguib
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mechawar
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rosa-Neto
authors.forename: Marc-Andre
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bedard